Are you traveling for the holidays? Tips to secure your home

Are you traveling for the holidays? Follow these helpful safe tips to secure your home before you leave Tucson for wherever it is you choose to celebrate the holidays.

Lock Your Doors, Windows and Gates

As simple as it sounds, the easy act of locking your existing locks before you leave is often enough to make a burglar think twice before your home becomes a target for crime. Many burglaries happen merely because a door or window was left unlocked. Locking them makes it more difficult for a crook to gain access to your home. Locking gates make it more challenging for a burglar to get access to the side or back of your house where they often lurk out of sight to gain entry. If your locks are inexpensive and not overly secure, consider installing high security locks, more secure locks before you leave.

Cancel Deliveries and Put Mail on Hold

Contact the post office and any newspaper or other scheduled deliveries such as newspapers or online orders to have them put on hold and canceled while you are away. If mail and newspapers stack up outside of your home, this is a red flag to a would-be burglar that no one is home and a welcome invitation for them to steal important information from the mail even if they never enter your house. If mail or newspapers do show up unexpected, have a neighbor on alert and willing to come by and pick them up to hold them for you until you return.

Keep Up The Yard

Make sure your lawn is mowed and landscaped kept up while you are away so that the home looks lived in. Ask a friend or neighbor to help out, or hire a professional landscaping company to come and mow or do the yard work. Don’t feel as if you need to explain to the landscaper that you are not home. They won’t typically need you to be home when they come to work, and the bills can usually be handled online.

Make Sure You’re Insured

Before you leave, make sure your home and its contents is insured or that your insurance is up to date. Make an inventory of your valuable items, and take pictures for record keeping sake. Keep a record of your policy and inventory in a safe place. Also make an electronic copy of your policy that you can store on your phone or mobile device so that if your documents are stolen or a fire or flood occurs while you are away, you will still have access to your insurance records and proof of what was stolen or damaged.

Hide Valuables

Secure small items like expensive jewelry in a safe that is bolted to the wall or floor boards and out of sight. Larger items, like a television set, cannot easily be tucked away. However, be sure to draw your blinds or curtains so that these valuable items are not easily seen by a passer by through a window.

Call Forwarding

If you still have a landline in the home, a telephone that is constantly ringing or triggering an answering machine can be a red flag to a burglar that no one is home. Remedy this by having your phone calls forwarded to a cell phone while you are away.

Alarm System

An alarm system is a good deterrent for would-be criminals, and having that alarm system monitored by a service is even better. The monitoring company will typically call you first if an alarm is triggered and if you do not answer, they will immediately send police to check out your property and home.

Dog Barking

While many people get a dog for security purposes, a constantly barking dog can alert burglars that the owner is not home to tend to the pet. Never leave your dog outside unattended as this is also a red flag that the dog is alone, so the property must be unattended as well. If you can’t take your dog with you, have someone come to take care of your pet who will also act as a house sitter while you are away.